Ven Pongal !!!!!

This has been sitting in my draft for almost a month , and then i decided that it has been long so here i am :).
Pongal is an authentic South Indian Dish and is made of rice. It's my all time favorite to day and nothing beats a plate of Pongal served with Sambhar , Chutney and Medhu Vada.
I was pregnant and this was my all time craving. Those days i hardly used to cook and left it all to my hubby. When i told him he made it one fine day but somehow something was not right and i refused to eat it. Poor hubby of mine did not have the heart to ask me to eat as i kept telling him i was preggy and this did not suit  my taste buds :P.
So there i was calling up my Mom for her recipe. A week later i made my hubby make the Pongal once more and this time stood next to him and kept cross checking if everything was as per the recipe my Mom gave us. I guess he must have been cursing me in his heart for being such a Big pain :). The Pongal was a hit with my Hubby too and to this day he insists that i make it as per my Mom's recipe. It's a hit with my friends and relative too.

Ingredients :
Rice - 1 cup ( i use Sona Masoori)
Moong Dal - 1/4 cup
1/4"inch ginger
4 cups water
1/2 cup milk
Salt to taste


To temper :


1 tsp cumin seeds
20-25 peppercorns freshly ground (coarsely , not a fine powder).
20 cashews .
2 to 3 coriander leaves
1/2 cup ghee ( or more if your taste buds call for it).


To go about it :


Wash rice and dal (some may fry the dal but i don't prefer it). Add rice , dal , water , milk , ginger , 1 tsp of ghee , salt to a pressure pan ( or cooker). Close the pan and allow it to cook for 4 whistles.
Once the rice is cooked , stir it up. Add ghee now and stir it again. The more the ghee , the tastier the Pongal in my opinion :). So if you are going to be calorie conscious , you can still reduce the ghee to suit your needs.
In the meantime in a pan add ghee ( don't give me a look :) ) , add coriander leaves , cumin , cashew and the coarsely ground pepper. Fry this till you get a nice smell  and please don't allow the cashew to deep roast as it will spoil the taste.
Add this to the cooked rice and stir it up well. 
           Pongal is now ready for serving with Chutney and /or Sambhar. Wish i had made Vada to go along with it ....*sigh* !!!!!


Electric cooker Version :


For those people who would like to make Pongal in the Electric rice cooker -  the process would remain the same , but the water + milk should be 7 cups. This comes out as good as the rice cooker version :).